Engineered for ambition

Our Creative Brand Platform is the idea that lives at the centre of all we do and say. It’s a uniquely Adyen notion that captures our brand personality: the precise, mathematical, problem solving Expert, and the imaginative, passionate “we’re never finished” Creator.

The audience is the hero of this story. And whilst their ambitions may vary in scale, complexity, and be constantly evolving, we continue to provide the financial technology that makes it possible.

Our brand positioning

The following guidance has been created to help our creative partners understand and embrace our new global brand positioning and translate it into something powerful and locally relevant.
Make good choices and, above all, have fun with it!

Engineered is:

Accessible
When we write or talk about technology – be accessible, open and inspired by its application, end-use, and benefits.

Inclusive
Everything we make, we make as a team and we make it for the benefit of consumers, partners and merchants. It’s “we” not “me.”

Tangible
What we build is not science fiction, it’s real, ‘here and now’, and ready for use. Don’t be too complex or opaque.

Fun
Financial products don’t have to be boring. There are so many ways our technology touches people’s lives and businesses. Make it meaningful.

Ambition is:

Scalable
Make ambition something people can grasp and work towards, regardless of the scale.

Specific
Don’t generalize about ambition. It’s not just ‘growth’ or ‘success’. Find new and inventive ways that differentiate ambition based on your audience.

Infinite
Ambition evolves and changes as goals are reached new goals emerge. Acknowledge this.

Emotive
Ambitions are not cold and corporate. They’re emotional and transcend borders. Language and imagery should embrace this.

Guiding principles

The important things to keep in mind when bringing ‘engineered for ambition’ to life.

From payments to a global financial technology platform
There are dozens of payments platforms out there claiming ‘seamlessness,’ ‘growth’. Adyen is unique in that we offer end-to-end payments capabilities, data, and financial products, in a single global solution. ‘engineered for ambition’ is how we will re-position ourselves as a Financial Technology Platform.

Show engineering the Adyen way
Avoid cliched images of circuit boards and endless lines of code and always include a human element. Messaging about engineering is relatable and easy-to-understand. Punchy headlines and benefit-driven copy should always highlight the impact of our engineering DNA.

A tech company that does banking. Not the other way around
We are coders, engineers, problem solvers, and that’s reflected in our values and our working culture: We’re not corporate. We take what we do seriously, but not ourselves. Our confidence is captured in short, punchy headlines and authentic imagery.

Our audience is enterprise businesses
When selecting images and crafting copy, remember that our customers are strategic decision makers in large, complex businesses, not small local business owners.

Build the core idea first
We want to use this platform for some years, so it needs to go beyond one single campaign. Let’s establish what ‘engineered for ambition’ means first and explore what makes it uniquely Adyen before we start creating variations of the line.

We are a B2B company with a B2C heart
We believe that business can be fun, so we can be playful with how we talk about it. And the way we express ourselves visually - without straying into ridicule.

Tell, don’t sell
‘engineered for ambition’ tells the world who we are, what we offer and to whom. It’s not a ‘selling’ idea as much as it is a ‘telling’ idea. Our financial technology platform, our products, and services are world class but we never brag and we’re not pushy.

Visual Guidance

"The line represents engineering and the fastest way from A to B. Like the markings on a tape measure, it's about precision, it marks the centre, the point from which everything else is built. In animation it grows from the bottom to symbolise progress and the growth we enable for our customers."

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Lock up

We create a lock up with the line for all collateral wider than 800px for screen purposes or 12cm for print.
Here’s how to create a lockup. Create the logo in the proportionate manner, suiteable for the format you’re creating. Make sure it is 2 x the Adyen A removed from the left bottom as shown.

Add the line to the middle of the page. The thickness will be corrected later on.

Duplicate an Adyen letter D, and create an Adyen A in the proportionate size next to it. The width of this A will dictate the margin, the height of this A will dictate the height of the X-heights of 2 lines of the “engineered for ambition” tagline.